History is riddled with class conflict, the rich trying to control the poor. And complications inevitably arise when, rich or poor, wealth and material things are valued over kindness, tolerance, and love, so that the poor want to be rich, and the rich want to stay rich, so the rich exploit this desire in the poor in order to keep them under control.
The bottom line, again, is what is valued. If money and power are valued (‘me getting mine’), then the rich can be replaced by the poor, and the poor will become rich, and then oppress the new poor to protect what they have because now they are rich. It is just a vicious cycle of greed and ignorance.
The poor are not virtuous because they are poor, especially if they themselves want to be rich. They are no better than the rich, because it is what is valued that matters much, much more than what someone does or does not “have.”
The fight of the poor against the rich is, thus, not inherently righteous, for the disease of avarice is the manipulating factor on both sides. The fight must rather be against lust for material wealth and extreme economic and social division.
Anyone whose motivation is desire for material wealth or power can, and will, be manipulated by those who already have it and wish to keep it. The true revolution cannot be against those who hold the wealth, but against “wealth” itself, against the desire for, and value of, wealth. Otherwise, the rich will just be replaced by someone else, and the cycle never ends.
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From my personal notes, 7/6/00
